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When I first went into a boxing gym I watched Kovalev fight on TV and now my name is spoken about in the same light as him, now I'm fighting him.
With my dad it was a short time between him getting ill and passing. He got ill first and he took a turn for the worse very quickly, within days.
I know there's a lot of opinions about Covid-19 and I have mine but I just know opinions ain't worth risking your life and others. Just stay home.
My dreams are to unify the world light-heavyweight titles like Roy Jones did and then at cruiserweight before then possibly the heavyweight division.
I've always wanted to be the strongest in my school, in my class, everywhere. I don't care if I'm in year seven, I wanted to be the strongest in the school.
I used to imitate Stone Cold Steve Austin. Identical. I literally made my own waistcoat like Stone Cold, put a little '3:16' I cut out of newspapers for it.
The Rock is somebody that every kid in my era grew up watching. Legend. His success is not only in wrestling but what he's done after it has been spectacular.
When I was growing up Harlequins were interested in signing me because I was very fast and strong at an early age, but I wasn't interested in rugby at the time.
When you get a bit older, life can start kicking and it was mainly the area I grew up in that began to lead me astray. I went down the wrong paths to some degree.
I have learned in boxing to separate emotion from your job and the time in the ring. When it comes to anything that causes an emotional trigger I try to clear my head.
I don't need to worry about what other people are talking about me. Instead, I focus on the people talking positive and all the positive things that I know I am doing.
Floyd Mayweather said it, perfect boxing career, undefeated, but he says that in life there's balance. He might have the perfect boxing career, but elsewhere there's loss.
If someone said at the end of 2016 that I'd be ranked No.1 in England, have three titles and be ranked top ten in the world at the end of 2017, I would have said probably not.
When I told people my plan was to knock everyone out in the amateurs and become world champion as quickly as I could as a professional, a lot of people said it was impossible.
A lot of people don't start something because of fear because they're scared of a negative outcome. Whereas I believe if you focus on negativity, you'll make nothing of your life.
It was an impossible ask to go out to Russia and knock out Kovalev. I felt that was the only way I'd win, but I made a good account of myself and we keep moving onwards and upwards.
My first boxing experience came at around 14. There was always confrontation in the area I grew up in. My mentality, I'll be honest, was if someone tries it with me, I want to be able to knock them out.
I told my boss, 'Thank you - but I'm not going to be here tomorrow. I'm going to pursue my career as a boxer.' I remember the woman actually laughed at me. She giggled and said, 'Boxing? Well, good luck.'
Sometimes you found yourself in conflict or within an area where there's conflict. Some days you just find yourself in danger. Sometimes these things mould you and that's what I mean about hostile environments.
Yes, my mum had a huge influence on my life and the love she had for me, the love we had between each other, did sway me to not do bad things. Sometimes they say the street raised you, but my mum did the raising.
So I was in football, athletics doing shot put and sprinting, and rugby all at the same time. Ultimately, I didn't know how serious you had to take one of them and I was just a kid wanting to do everything at once.
I was offered the Kovalev fight in 2018 but my manager and promoter agreed it wasn't the right time for me to be challenging for a world title then. I needed a few more tuneup fights, learning fights, and I'm fine with that.
I remember when I used to go to York Hall and just watch, and I'd be like 'how are these people doing it.' Even though I was an amateur boxer at the time, I was like 'how are these guys fighting professionally in this arena?'
Even after your fight on the night, you have loads of media you have to do and people expecting stuff from you and you want to make everyone proud. So afterwards I take three or four days off and I just want to eat and eat and eat.
I remember being in fights and being tremendously outnumbered and it escalating into something much worse. That's why I laughed when people asked if I was scared of going to Russia. If only they knew about some of the things I've seen.
I sometimes look on YouTube and see people label videos 'Anthony Yarde sparring his trainer Ade' but that is not sparring, that's just practice. We practice getting attacked, countering and attacking your opponent back, in intelligent ways.
In year seven and eight I was very small, but I was muscular. Year nine, ten and eleven I got massive. I was in the gym every day, even at lunchtime and break times. I was thinking about boxing at that time but didn't think I would actually do it.
I've had 12 amateur fights, 18 professional fights and I've come to Russia, not just to Russia but to Chelyabinsk, home of Sergey Kovalev who has an impressive resume. The fact I've come to his backyard means I feel it will go down as one of the best results ever.
The thing I learnt the most from the Kovalev fight, in all my other fights, when I hurt my opponent I was composed, but because this was such a big fight, I lost my cool, I started fighting with emotion instead of using my common sense and tactics to break him down.
Everyone has their own methods, when Muhammad Ali was coming through I am sure people said he leaned back too far, had his chin too high and dropped his hands too low. I am not comparing myself Ali, just showing that people have different methods that work for them.
In a way, and I don't like to use this word, but delusion can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing, but when you genuinely believe in something, if you're putting in the effort to progress, you're going to progress more than someone who doesn't think they can do it.
I used to have a short temper. I still have one and when I lose it, it's bad. I think it comes from what you see when you're young. Sometimes it builds from being scared as well. Once you lose it once, you find comfort in losing your temper. It becomes embedded in you.
I'm an example of someone that's got a big physique but doesn't touch any weights. I used to, but I realized when I used to touch weights I'd get a lot of soreness and mobility issues, so I'd get up and my shoulder would be hurting, not only the muscle but around the joint.
One day guns were pulled on us by older guys. My friend had gone to sell his moped and they took the moped, my friend's phone and some money. But all he got from my pocket was a tub of Vaseline. I remember him saying, 'Oh, he's a sweet boy' and throwing my Vaseline on the floor.
I saw a lot of bad things happen by people I know and to people I know. There were a lot of different gangs around and sometimes you found yourself in conflict. I found myself attracting negative things because I was in a negative environment, I was pre-determining this stuff before it happened.
Nobody has really gone out to Russia to fight somebody like Kovalev. A lot of people are paying attention to it and can't believe what I'm doing. Some people think I'm going to pull out. I've seen comments saying 'Oh this is a good publicity stunt' and I was just laughing. They don't understand.